Electric-blue eyes returned their gaze towards Hector who had inquired about the apparatus. Aphotis twirled the ball around with her spindly fingers.
“A demonstration is possible, we merely need to use our imagination as I twist the device and activate it. A short duration will absorb brain waves that are linked with the Force, but a minor release like that will not be devastating,” her voice had a mischievous tone to it.
She had often toyed with these weapons and developed a certain masochistic fondness of the subdued sensation they gave off when the energy was released. It felt much akin to the reversal of gravity, coupled with the sensation of suction cups placed all over the skin.
“Trials have shown that the effectiveness does not vary significantly between species. Affected areas of the brain are the right occipital lobe, the left insula, the left thalamus, the hippocamus and especially the amygdala,” her eyes glowed a slight bit brighter as she added more melody to her voice, “there are certainly ways to amplify the destruction with distilled fear.”
Hector gazed at the device. What an interesting contraption.
“I do have two questions,” he inquired. “Firstly, does the non destructive function have long term side effects for a user? And secondly, are the destructive capabilities capable of being used with any degree of precision?”
The device sounded powerful but it was important to ascertain how much planning it would require. Was it something that could be guided from afar by one’s will? Or was it a fire and forget type of weapon where a user relied on its destructiveness and a bit of luck?
“It affects the entire way you think and the most clear side effects would be a lack of self-preservation and a gradual decline in creativity. These are logical conclusions when you take away a vital emotion.”
“The destructive capability can be pre-calculated by the amount of Force sensitives in the area. Should the container be fully fuelled—at which point the device will feel considerably heavier—the formula could be simplified to ‘x’ to the power of two, starting at around a two meters radius.”
“The flexibility lies in the way you charge it, but also that it becomes exponentially more dangerous in crowds—albeit not quite as lethal as the mythical thought bomb. This one isolates one emotion, not all of them. This was an intentional invention.”
“Now, I believe it is your turn,” Aphotis steepled her hands, her voice being more assertive.
“Very well. I was going to wait until the droid returned, but I can begin my explanation.”
“As you almost certainly already know, Beskar is a metallic substance shaped into armor and weapons and used by Mandalorians. What you may not know is that nearly all Mandalorian armor has air filters and sealed helmets with their stock variant, which makes gas and chemical weapons far less effective against Mandalorians than other foes.”
“When facing a Beskar wearing foe you have three options. Take advantage of the metallic properties of Beskar, strike them in an unprotected area, or use a weapon that will bypass the armor entirely. Sonic and Flamethrower weapons can attack the fleshy bits inside of Beskar without needing to break the armor or hit unprotected areas. Electrical weapons can arc to the metals found in Beskar. And any weapon can strike an unprotected area.”
Hector paused for a moment.
“Additionally, many Mandalorians wear jetpacks. Disable one of them using an ion weapon or explosive and you can kill an airborne unit of Mandalorians before they have the opportunity to fire upon you.”